


Stay frosty, Grinch

by Swing Set in December (swing_set13)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 09:58:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6234175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swing_set13/pseuds/Swing%20Set%20in%20December
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You're a mean one, Captain Cold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay frosty, Grinch

**Author's Note:**

> I'd don't know. It's probably terrible. It's been sitting on my desktop for a while.

The Snart name is synonymous for cantankerous and vile. A curse that haunts the North Pole. It's a legacy. To be the family with the most renowned Grinches. It's a noble calling. Christmas cheer cannot exist without the noble art of Grinching. Legend goes that the Snarts' hearts are as black as coal and three sizes too small.

Len Snart enjoys his job. It comes with perks. He's pretty much impervious to the cold. His ability to create Christmas misery is truly an art form. His sister says he's a natural. A real chip off the family ice block. His Christmas heists are legendary. Earning him the moniker of Captain Cold. It's his job to hate everything.

Utmost of all, he supposed to hate Christmas elves.

Now, Christmas elves embody pretty much everything Len isn't. They're balls of happiness and joy 24/7.

Which makes him helpless to explain his current obsession, The Flash. The Flash is usually a position reserved for the North Pole’s top courier elf. A missing present on Christmas Eve? The Flash can out run even Rudolph himself.

Jay Garrick wore the mantle of The Flash for the past 10 years. An elf Len loathed more than Grinching would have permitted. Icing up Garrick’s path always made Len smirk.

But this year, a new elf became The Flash, Barry Allen, who had never been on Len’s radar. Len’s not conceited, but he doesn’t really pay attention to elves unless they’re a thorn in his side.

Now there’s a strange, uncomfortable, new feeling in his chest when he sees that familiar Flash cowl. Barry always has a smile on his face and actually laughed the first time he slipped on the ice that Len left to trip up Garrick.

“Stay frosty, Grinch,” Barry says as he flew by the next day on skates instead, his laughter echoing in Len’s head for the rest of the day and his chest ached longingly.

Len’s usually stoic about the holidays and sequesters himself in one of the looming caverns above the North Pole, plotting his grinching down to the finest detail. But this year he’s spending more time in town. He actually surprised his sister by treating her to hot cocoa at Jitters.

“Are you feeling well, Lenny?” Lisa asks with concern. “Usually you’re not one for socializing this close to Christmas.”

Any snide comment he would have brushed her off with dies in his throat when Barry Allen enters the cafe.

His sister was very much unimpressed when she caught his gaze.

“A Christmas elf, Len? Really?” she snorted.

“He’s a courier elf,” Len defended, his chest seizing in a cold ache.

“Oh well that changes everything,” Lisa grins. “Courier elves have the best assets.”

It doesn’t help that Len has a perfect bird’s eye view of said assets as Barry Allen orders a black coffee with thirty-two sugars.

“Don’t do anything you’ll regret, brother dear,” warns Lisa. “We’re Grinches.”

“I have it handled,” growls Len and feels his chest spasm morosely.

“Being smitten could snowball into being happy, Len. That’s the last thing a Grinch wants. You taught me that.”

His heart feels constricted inside. Like it’s growing. The last time he felt this way was when Lisa was born. His heart grew three times that day. Thankfully it shrivelled up smaller than before shortly after. No thanks to his father. But this time it feels almost like his ribs can’t hold back against a blossoming warmth that he’s been fighting off since he was small.

“I’m fine,” snarls Len, shooting a lingering look over at Barry Allen and trying to squelch the rapid beat of his own heart.

Grinches aren't meant to be happy. That's just the way of the world. It'd take a Christmas miracle for that to change.

Or maybe just a Scarlet Speedster.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on my [tumblr](http://swingsetindecember.tumblr.com/).


End file.
